Chapter 02: Blown Apart

[A/N: Thoughts being “overheard by Sookie are in italics. The quotes in bold are directly from All Together Dead.]

“What the hell are you doing?” Quinn demanded with a growl, his eyes glowing yellow.

I didn’t know whom Quinn was asking, but it was Andre who answered. As he did, a little bit of my own world crumbled, but not because of anything Andre was saying—or thinking.

As with Eric, I couldn’t hear Andre’s thoughts, and for that I was thankful.

But the Viking’s blood had certainly strengthened my ability to hear Quinn’s thoughts! And the relationship puzzle I’d been trying to “solve” with the Weretiger was immediately destroyed. In its place, a very different image emerged.

Quinn’s mind was filled with expletives and thoughts that half of me wanted to un-hear as soon as I’d heard them.

The other half of me was thankful for the truths I got from Quinn’s head. Better to be in the light than in the dark—I’d learned that the hard way with Bill.

I shivered a little at the venom in Quinn’s thoughts. They were dark and violent. Apparently, there wasn’t a vampire that Quinn didn’t want to kill. However, he was looking at me as if I might be his first target.

Fuck, Sookie! Thought we might be able to get through this shit! I was starting to actually like you—despite the fact that you are damaged goods. Damaged!

His face clouded with disgust as the color of his thoughts grew darker—almost black.

She’s had so much vampire blood in her! Wonder if she’s even worth it.

Fangbanger! Blood Whore!

Quinn’s eyes traveled and took in Eric’s stained crotch.

Bet she liked giving him blood! Bet she rubbed his cock while he fucking fang-raped her! Damaged goods!

Quinn shook his head a little, obviously trying to change the tenor of his thoughts.

No, Sookie’s not like that. She had no choice here, but it doesn’t make it better.

Plus, I don’t have any fucking choice in the matter! I gotta stick with this. I gotta ignore the fucking vamp stench on her and keep her happy! If I don’t, Felipe will hurt Mom.

I needed Eric’s hand as support as Quinn’s thoughts continued to pepper me with truths that were eerily similar to others—truths that had brought me to my knees not so long ago. One truth was very certain: Eric’s blood had ripped away the relative peace that I had once found in Quinn’s arms. Quinn was now an open book to me—an open book written in large print like Gran had needed during the last years of her life.

And I couldn’t help but to read the pages as Quinn continued to turn them.

Mom and Franny—I gotta protect them. Keep them safe.

Fuck Felipe de Castro! Fucking fanger thinks he owns me!

He does own me! Fuck!

He just fucking had to order me to learn all there was to know about the famed telepath.

Had to seduce her.

Doesn’t matter that I might have actually liked her under different circumstances. Have to see this through for Fannie. For Mom. Can’t think with my dick.

Just wish I could kill de Castro, Northman, Andre, and all the rest of them fangers! Then she could be mine.

Mine!

No—Sookie’s too far gone; she’s too much of a fangbanger. If I killed them, she’d just find another. Plus, I couldn’t have a child with her—not a Weretiger. Gotta carry on the line. Wish I could cut bait and get the fuck out!

Sex with her wasn’t even that good—though her tits were nice. Just couldn’t stop thinking about Sookie fucking dead men.

At least, her cluelessness about my true feelings told me she couldn’t hear my thoughts very well. At least Felipe was happy about that! Famed telepath though? Really? She can hear only humans, and I can get information out of humans!

I closed my eyes tightly, but there was no escaping Quinn’s head.

Together, we relived a conversation he had with a vampire king, one wearing a red silk cape.

An initial order from Felipe de Castro, King of Nevada, for Quinn to approach me.

Endear himself to me.

Sookie Stackhouse—the weak link in Sophie-Anne’s retinue.

I was perfect! Not close enough to Sophie-Anne to be suspected of being an unwitting spy, but close enough to know useful things.

I could be seduced.

I would spill information—not understanding that I was doing so.

I would be able to supply intelligence about Eric.

I swayed a little on my already weak knees. At some point, Eric’s gentle touch had become strong enough to support me almost fully—to keep me standing. I became even more grateful for that support as a more recent meeting with King Felipe popped into Quinn’s mind.

Though Quinn had not wanted to continue his relationship with me for a variety of reasons—some of them even honorable—Felipe had ordered him to do just that.

Having heard too much, my own mind began to scream in order to drown out Quinn’s thoughts and the images associated with them.

“Raise your fucking shields, Stackhouse!” my internal voice begged, even as I tried to do as it ordered.

At that moment, I felt strength from a source I couldn’t name, but I latched onto it and got my shields raised. I glanced at Eric. He was looking at me with about a million questions in his eyes. But I wasn’t emotionally ready to handle any of them.

It wasn’t time for “fight.” And it sure as hell wasn’t time to “deal.” It was time for “flight.”

“Andre,” I said, trying to keep my voice from quivering, even as I attempted to avoid eye contact with Quinn, “I will finish the work I agreed to do for the queen, but right now I need to see to my human needs.”

I nodded gratefully and looked up at Eric. “Thank you for making that as painless as possible,” I said sincerely.

“There was no pain for me,” he responded. Even as he did, however, my insides literally twitched, as if telling me that he was lying. Regardless, his hold on me dropped as I stepped away. Well—at least the wet spot on Eric’s pants did tell me that he’d experienced no physical pain during our blood-sharing.

“Come with me now,” the Weretiger growled, even as he looked at Eric with defiance. It was clear that Quinn was trying to show his “ownership” over me in the face of a clear challenge.

“Not now, Quinn,” I sighed as Andre laughed and Eric growled again.

“Now, Sookie!” the Weretiger exclaimed, his eyes still on Eric, even more alit with hate than before.

Desperate times, desperate measures. And I was desperate, so I found myself saying something I never thought I’d say.

“Sorry, Quinn, but I really gotta go take a shit right now! And I really don’t need any help wiping,” I said impatiently, even as I imagined Gran rolling over in her grave all the way back in Bon Temps. But I seriously needed to get the hell out of there before I fell apart, and Quinn’s hold on my arm was not doing any favors for my shields.

“Oh,” he sounded surprised—and a little disgusted (as if he’d never taken a shit). “Oh—okay. Later then,” he stammered.

I tried to give Quinn a comforting smile, and I mustered the strength to pat his arm as I passed him. And then I set a quick pace down the hall.

Andre was laughing even louder than before, but I didn’t turn around. I got to the end of the hall and then turned right. Seeing a sign that read, “Baggage Area,” I remembered that I was supposed to pick up an unclaimed piece of luggage for the queen’s group. Thankful for the distraction, I followed the sign to another sign—and then another sign—before eventually ending up at a large loading dock. At one end was a collection of suitcases under a sign reading, “unclaimed luggage.”

“Oh to be unclaimed and un-coveted,” I muttered sarcastically, keeping a tight reign over my emotions, even as my mind was trying to process the events of the previous ten minutes.

Andre’s threats.

Eric’s “gallantry.”

Quinn’s betrayal.

Nope—I wasn’t ready to process yet.

Still in flight mode. And I was okay with that.

I concentrated on finding the suitcase I was sent to fetch, even offering to help another lackey find one for his queen.

“Geez! How many misplaced bags could there be?” I asked, concentrating on anything but my own problems.

The other lackey—I think he said his name was Jeff—just shrugged.

“And why can’t they just bring them up to us?” I added, gesturing toward two employees who looked to be doing anything but work. The two guards with the shotguns at the entrance didn’t seem to be doing much either—other than playing cards.

“Some kind of liability thing,” Jeff responded with another shrug.

“Liability my ass,” I thought uncharitably as I glanced again at the employees. One of them was now looking at me sideways, probably ogling my breasts. I tried to bolster my shields again, but they really didn’t seem to want to cooperate—not with the strong new dosage of vampire blood in my body, which seemingly wanted to hear everybody! “Fuck!” I muttered as I broke a nail while shifting a bag that said “Maine” on it.

“Found it!” Jeff said in triumph as he found the errant bag for Iowa. “Good luck on yours,” he added, as he hurried from the room.

“Right,” I sighed. It wasn’t long before I found a bag with a tag that simply said “Louisiana.”

“Odd,” I muttered. All of the suitcases were labeled with only a state name, and there were a lot of them.

“You need help?” one of the employees asked from across the room. His nametag was large and read “Joe.” He was walking toward me now—a somewhat worried expression on his face.

I wanted to curl up into a little ball as his thoughts were practically propelled at me.

Is she suspicious?

Fuck! I knew I shouldn’t have agreed to do this. But that Fellowship guy gave me so much money, and Mom’s medical bills are so high. And now they know who I am, so I can’t exactly tell the authorities about it! They’d fucking kill me and my family, too—all in God’s name. Crazy fuckers!

God! I never should have opened that suitcase! Got to make sure they are all planted—like I am supposed to. They’ll know if I don’t. Shit! They won’t go off tonight, right? Not till they’re all set. Right?

Right. Calm down. Just get this done. Finish your shift. Tell the Fellowship guy that it’s all set, get the rest of the money, and get the fuck out of Dodge.

Fuck! Why did I have to open it? They have fucking locks for a fucking reason!

And in the midst of all Joe’s thoughts, I saw the image that he’d seen when his curiosity had gotten the best of him and he’d picked the small luggage lock and opened the suitcase labeled “Texas.”

A BOMB!

I felt my patented Merlotte’s smile turn up my lips. “Nope. I found what I needed,” I said, lightly patting the top of the suitcase that I was to deliver to its place in the queen’s suite—so that it could blow her up!

Years of practice with hiding my true feelings, I continued calmly. “I just broke a nail trying to get the bag out of the luggage corral,” I added, showing Joe the broken nail as evidence.

“Hey, you got blood on your collar,” Joe said, pointing at my clothing. In a split second, his thoughts changed from guilt and fear to disgust.

Fucking fangers turning pretty women into blood whores. Maybe the Fellowship is right. Maybe vamps should be taken out.

I kept my smile firmly in place, despite his thoughts. “Well, thanks,” I said as I raised the handle of the suitcase bomb and rolled it out of the area. My every instinct told me to leave the bag and run out of the hotel, but I didn’t do that. I went back the way I’d come, stopping at a supply closet once I was out of sight. And that’s where I left the suitcase.

I knocked on Eric’s door. “Please be here. Or even Pam,” I begged as I knocked louder. Only the air in the hallway heard my pleas.

“Where are you, Eric?” I wailed.

“Fuck!” I muttered when there was still no answer after another minute of knocking. “Fuck!” I said louder, trying to figure out what to do next. One thing was certain: I couldn’t simply run into the middle of the lobby and yell, “Bomb!”

Or could I?

I took a deep breath. “Where is that vampire when I need him?” I laughed ruefully, knowing that Eric had already “appeared” once when I’d needed him that night.

I turned and went toward the elevator. “Maybe he’s in the queen’s suite,” I mused aloud, still actively keeping myself calm.

I figured that Joe was right. The Fellowship nuts would be just sane enough to make sure that their bombs were all placed before they set them off. I also figured they’d wait until daytime to attack—thereby maximizing the loss of vampires, who might survive the bombs, but couldn’t survive the sun if they tried to escape the blasts.

As I entered the elevator, thoughts of school once again invaded my anxiety-soaked brain.

There was one place at my old high school that had offered me shelter from the thoughts of the other children and the teachers. I’d thought of it as my safe haven.

The football field had been built almost half a mile from the main building. Given the fact that my teachers welcomed it when I “skipped” class—especially on one of my “crazier” days—I would run there when the minds of those around me became too much.

Too suffocating.

It wasn’t the field itself that I ran to. It was an old supply shed just to the south of the field that served as my safety zone. The shed housed only a bunch of old uniforms and discarded equipment, but it was better than a Hilton to me—not that I’d ever stayed in one of those.

The football team would practice after school, so I had to leave the shed by 2:50 p.m. in order to avoid the coaches’ arrival to the area, but that was fine. I usually had enough time in my haven to get my shields back up or simply to rest before I’d have to face getting on the bus that would take me to Gran’s house.

The teachers never mentioned my absences to Gran. I was thankful to them for that.

Gran would have wanted me to “soldier through”—like a good Southern lady (obviously not the kind that announced their need to “take shits”). Maybe I should have “soldiered through”—in order to learn better endurance.

Instead, however, I had learned to run to safety. As the elevator doors opened, I knew that I was running to something else now.

To Eric.

I wasn’t exactly sure why, but I really needed him in that moment.

Maybe he was “safety” now.

“And he’ll know what to do,” I whispered to myself. “He’ll know what to do about all of it.”

The bond.

The bombshell about Quinn.

The literal bombshells that were moving into place around the entire hotel.

The little lobby around the elevator on the queen’s floor was deserted—not that I was expecting anyone to be hanging out there. I looked around pensively—maybe expecting Andre to pop out of the urn next to the elevator. And that’s when something in that urn caught my attention.

“Damned litter bugs!” I exclaimed as I picked up the soda can that had been discarded there instead of being put into a trashcan—or preferably a recycle bin.

Why I picked up the can when the whole hotel could be reduced to recycling any moment was beyond me. Maybe it was Gran’s voice in my head.

Maybe it was because the world being polluted was a bigger problem than any of mine, and I could actually help with that one—if only a tiny bit.

Maybe there was an electric charge in my body that pulled me to the can.

Trouble magnet indeed.

The can was heavier than it should have been. And I knew in a split second that I was holding my second bomb of the day.

“Fuck!” I yelled out to nobody.

Except that there was suddenly a somebody there—but not one I’d expected. It was Batanya with her charge, the King of Kentucky; they were looking at me suspiciously through the open elevator doors.

“Stop!” I ordered. “Don’t get off of the elevator.”

Batanya placed her body in the doorway to stop the doors from closing, and with her arm, she barred the king from moving.

“Why not?” the Britlingen warrior asked.

“Bomb,” I said, looking down at the can. “At least, I think it’s a bomb.”

Batanya nodded and quickly stepped back into the conveyance fully, simultaneously pushing the elevator button and speaking into a communication device.

I heard her telling Clovache about the situation even as the king looked at me with pity—and maybe a twinge of gratefulness.

“We’ll send help,” the king said as the elevator doors closed.

“Thanks,” I squeaked out, remembering my manners—and hoping I’d have the chance to say “thank you” to the one to whom I really owed the words.

A/N: Thanks so much to everyone who has already favorited, followed, and/or commented on this story! I’m so pleased that many of you liked chapter 1! I hope that this chapter suited you too. I always thought that C.H. did Sookie a disservice by never letting her catch on to Quinn’s duplicity—until it was way too late. And—I also have to admit that in ALL of the canon, Quinn is the character I dislike the most—yep, disliked him more than Bill, Victor, Appius, Freyda, Andre (listing them all gives me heartburn). I just felt that Quinn was so—yucky. (No offense to any of his fans out there. He just didn’t appeal to me.) I mean—I get that the two-natured were harder for Sookie to “hear,” but that wasn’t necessarily true when Sookie touched them. Honestly, I was mad at Sookie for purposely trying to stay out of Quinn’s head and not “do a check” on him. But I understood. Still—since switbo has “prompted” me to revisit this part of the book series—I decided to shake things up and let Sookie hear Quinn’s thoughts. Yes—they are likely “uglier” than they were in C.H.’s head.

In this story, I also wanted for Sookie to learn about the Fellowship bombs—a lot sooner than she did before. The very notion that she doesn’t investigate the very suspicious situation with all the unclaimed bags (labeled only with the state names) was ridiculous. I went back and re-read this section of All Together Dead, and I was mystified about why “sleuth Sookie” (as she was being in this book) didn’t ask questions like these: Why would a hotel catering to vampires not be more careful with their bags? And why weren’t the vampires looking for them?

So—instead of being clueless—this Sookie will be very much “in the know”: about Quinn and the bombs. Hope you like my twists!

I didn’t like Quinn either; his penchant for calling Sookie ‘Babe’ drove me up the wall! It was like he had been with hundreds of women but couldn’t be bothered to remember their names, like Sookie is an overused name or something.
The fact he couldn’t take time out to be with Sookie until AFTER Rhodes didn’t sit well with me either—almost like he KNEW something would be going down then.
I’ve always wondered, and didn’t realize it until now, if Quinn wasn’t a Fellowship Member. Since Sookie couldn’t get an accurate read on weres very often it could have been.
The only thing he did right as far as I’m concerned was killing Andre and even then I would have preferred to witness his punishment from QSA for forcing the issue of her tying herself to a member of the LA party. I don’t think QSA knew about Andre’s plans, if she had he would have tried to force the issue in front of her and Eric wouldn’t have had as much of a chance to ‘claim’ Sookie as he did.
Sorry, Quinn is in my top two hates in the series, lol.
As for the story itself I’m still on the fence. I think I have gotten used to your stories from Eric’s POV so it’s taking me some time to work my head around the difference.

I’ve done some Sookie POV before, but usually not from the first person (though there are a couple of exceptions). There will, however, be two chapters from Eric’s head. And he will be more involved in the next chapter. (Someone’s gotta ‘skin the cat.’) I think stories (even my own–ESPECIALLY my own–LOL–don’t really pick up until the Viking gets more involved in the action. Hope that you will like it more as he does.
Best,
Kat

I know you’ve written Sookie centric stories before, I just don’t enjoy them as much, lol. I think that’s because we got all this drivel from Sookie in the books so never got a good look at what Eric’s (or Bill’s, or Quinn’s) motives really were which could have improved the series exponentially.

Yeah–I really enjoyed writing Inner (though I can’t tell you how frustrated I was sticking with the main narrative of the show). I’ve enjoyed, even more, drafting the sequel to that one. I keep it in Eric’s POV, but go away from “canon.”

Inner is one of the few I haven’t read. It hurts to see what he thinks of Sookie at the beginning even though she whole heartedly deserves it. I’ll get to it eventually. Until then I’m just waiting for the finale to the Un-iverse *grin*. I’m getting rather impatient for that one although I’m trying to find other things to occupy my time until you start publishing it agian.

I’m still hoping to unleash United pretty soon. It won’t come as fast as the others (meaning that I’ll probably post only one chapter a week for a while.) I got a lot of work done on that one, but when I have piles of grading, I cannot work on stories like that because it’s too hard to keep everyone/everything straight. 🙂

I know real life takes precedence :), doesn’t mean I have to like it though, lol.
Besides, The Shadows (Black Dagger Brotherhood) will be released on the 31st so I’ve got something a little more tangible to look forward to :D. Not that it’ll take me long to read it…

I share your frustration with the inept way that Sookie was written by CH. If she was solving mysteries, all I can say is she was frequently a day late and a dollar short. She could have stopped the bombing if she had used her head, the pieces of the puzzle were right that, just as you describe them. And what a different outcome there would be if the plot failed…No disabled Sophie Anne, Andre (creepy as he was, he always had SA’s back) not ended and able to support his queen. I love what you are writing her and can’t wait for the next chapter.

Yeah, CH was really just as lazy as the idiots at TB when it came to consistency. Far too difficult to make her characters react in a consistent way and fit the storyline to them. Much easier to just write whatever pops in you head and make the characters react however is needed to fit your inane ideas. This book drove me up the wall with numerous examples of that type of ineptitude.

I love your fixes. It bothered me that Barry found out about the bombs and Sookie was clueless. I have to agree about Quinn, even while I feel sorry for him. He was caught in a trap and had ample reason to hate vampires. Still, he was using Sookie. I would like to see Andre survive, especially if he got punished for forcing the bond. I recall that Eric hinted that Andre would find a way to punish him for interfering. Great chapter. I’ m ready for more.

Another Awesome chapter! I wonder how Sookie will handle Quinn trying to get into the mist of things, knowing now how he really is now and the he was sent by felipe. He is Bill, but were style! I wonder if she will give him the can and leave with Eric and go have a talk! LOL! But that would most likely be too mean for Sookie ever to do! LOL! I love how you changed things. I always thought it was dumb when she did not check out the people in her life to make sure being truthful with her. Especially in the beginning of a new friendship or relationship, before they have earned her trust. Or when she found herself in weird situations like with the luggage. She seems more worried about other peoples feelings about her reading them, then common sense and survival. Especially after Bill and Rena, you would think she would want to fully check them out for lies before locking up her shields. She blames vampires for her problems, but her not checking people, with the gift God her for a reason, is just silly! Any way loved it! Keep up the excellent work!

Get read thesetwo chapters of your new story…
Loving how you are fixing another storyline:
Quinn and Sookie…I always thought that she should have been more cautious with Quinn after Bill’s betrayal but Sookie didn’t use her “curse” being a telepath and all!
Liked how you fixed the unclaimed baggage and stuff!
Seriously did CH think we were all preschoolers!

I always felt sorry for Quinn. I think he really did like Sookie but DeCastro owned him because of his mother. I think he would have been an ok guy if not for that. Just ok. He was too full of himself as the great “QUINN”. I think he did not know how to treat a woman like Sookie since everyone made over the fact that he was one of the last weretigers and a great pit fighter. He was used to were groupies. I think he could have come around if his mom had been different. Sookie is partly to blame. I know she wanted to give everyone the right to privacy but she is in the supernatural world. She need to get over that as there are too many layers of political bull crap. She needs to be less a southern flower and more a steel magnolia. Eric also has issues. All that vamp is the top of the food chain bull has to go. Vampires went public because simple human technology made it impossible for them to remain in the shadows any longer. If he respected humans and Sookie more then he would talk to her more.

Love this so far and cannot wait to see what happens next. I always hated Quinn and him calling her “babe” all the time. Maybe with her inside info from Quinn’s thoughts she can eventually stop the takeover from happening and maybe the explosion too.

I can;t stand Quinn either. And Sam for that matter. Seems to me all the shifters were bad news for Sookie. I mean Sam knew things and never told Sookie! All he did was yell at her! That’s another story though.

Oh I agree. I actually think. Sam is the character in SVM that I hate the most because he always claimed to be Sookies friend, but he kept secrets and didn’t trust her, and he constantly berated her for being ‘stupid’ whenever she made a choice he didn’t agree with. Like pick someone other than him to date despite the fact that never had the balls to ask her out himself until she was taken. He was like a rotten child who didn’t want the toy unless someone else wanted to play with it. I would have dumped that ‘friend’ like a rotten apple.

Great chapter.
Loved that Sookie found out the truth about Quinn here.
CH changed Sookie’s personality the further the novels went on. She essentially turned into Arlene in the end- small minded and bigoted.
It’s nice to be reminded of the earlier novels when Sookie was likeable.

I agree with a few of the ladies. I hated how Sookie devolved over the course of the novels. She started out like-able, brave, if a little naive, but instead of learning and growing and accepting her Fae-ness (even if only a small part of who she was) she ended up a small-minded, bigoted back-water barmaid.
As for Quinn? Never did like him. I understand why he did the things he did, but I still didn’t like him. Too full of himself. Like Sookie should count herself lucky he was interested in her.
Love it so far. Can’t wait to see what happens next! 😀

Two things I found weird with the bombing.
1) The clerks mind was kinda shielded and hard for Sookie to read. Why? CH never explained that. What was blocking her out? Filipe being involved makes sense…. But I’m guessing it not really Filipe I this, or the clerk would be glamoured to forget him, unless Filipe is inept. Or is Sookie is hearing past glamour?
2) so many bags with illegible tags, Area xx and the state being clear.
Put both things together and Sookie should have been suspicious.

Ok. So Quinn…. Hmm. I get why people don’t like Quinn. And him already being used by Filipe is a new twist. Honestly though, I think he wasn’t used until after the bombing. But I don’t deny that he’s descisions regarding Filipe, and Sookie and Eric were crappy. I always thought that he would have more contacts in the Supe world he could have turned to,to get out from under Filipe. He was a co owner of EEE for crikeys sake! That kinda implies cash and connections! CH’s implication that he was stuck with Filipe made no sense! I think CH screwed him over big. Shoulda seen the warning signs for our Viking then 😦

Ok. So Filipe is already in play.
Quinn is already in play. And an idiotic, bigoted asshole.
The bombs are in play.
But Sookie knows all of this already. Refreshing twist indeed!
And she’s isn’t being such a bitch about the bonding.

Glad that you are fixing the absurdity of Sookie and Barry missing out so many threats… It never made sense to me that Sookie wouldn’t listen to people like Quinn at least to check if he had an agenda of his own which was always a possibility behind that suspicious job at EEE…

Loving it Kat! Hope Quinn is getting the boot big time in the next chapter. I never like him either. He’s not my most hated, but he got in between Eric and Sookie and I never could understand how she could tolerate all the ‘Babe’ crap. Ugh. I also agree with everyone else, that it was just so stupid of Sookie not to make more of an effort to ‘listen’, esp after what happened with ScumBill. On to chapter three!

Yeah I like this version much better. I always thought it odd Sookie didn’t pick up something about the bombs earlier and she was far too trusting of Quinn – who I detest with a passion. Everything about Quinn (especially the Babe thing as I got called that in one job for 18 frigging months) irritated the hell out of me. Thank god True Blood didn’t go there, Alcide was bad enough!

Did I already mention how you take one of my favorite books (probably second favorite of the series) and made it way better? I think I did, but it bears repeating. 😉 I’m with you, I always find it perplexing how Sookie got dumbed down a bit in this book–with Quinn, I can understand it, but the unclaimed luggage was a huge red flag to me as a reader. Given how secretive vampires are (and Sookie knows this better than most), I’ve always wondered how she didn’t realize something wasn’t right immediately. Vampires aren’t the kind to leave luggage unclaimed and not even ask about it (although, I’m forgetting, was there something in there about her thinking maybe it was some of the humans’ luggage? I guess that might make sense if so–like I said, I can’t remember and don’t feel like digging my books out right now LOL).

Anyway, I prefer your version of these events! The part about her questioning why she’d even picked it up made me laugh, and I can’t wait to read the next chapter.

About Quinn–I think he’s definitely my least favorite too, as I just realized. Originally I was going to say second least because Appius, but then I realized that at least Appius doesn’t hide or delude anyone about who he really is, where Quinn seems to be the king of self delusion, making himself think he’s a big ole victim in all of this mess. So yep, I’m agreeing with you about the least favorite character. He makes me skin crawl–and the sad thing is, I somehow liked him the first time I read the books. Ewwww. (I also liked Bill and Sookie the first time I watched True Blood too though, now early Bill just skeeves me right out. Clearly younger me had some judgment errors. LOL)

Anyway, I’ve rambled forever so I’m going to the next chapter–just wanted to let you know how much I love your work!

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Many thanks to Seph, who is a wonderful friend and provides so much art to this site!Many thanks to my wonderful and generous Beta! I couldn't do it without you!from Hisviks, the patient owner of BEEHL the cat